About Read&Write

Read&Write  from TextHelp (the makers of EquatIO)  helps all individuals succeed regardless of ability or learning style.  Users can access the reading, writing, studying, and research tools they need at school, home, or work. Having text read aloud with dual color highlighting, along with additional support tools, helps every learner gain confidence and work independently at their own pace.

Syracuse University maintains a site license for Read&Write for PC and , Mac, and iReadWrite for iPad, as well as a Chrome browser extension. 

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Read&Write is especially helpful for those challenged with the increased demands of college, including: 

• Those with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia

• Student athletes trying to balance the demands of sports with their course work

• First-generation college students 

• English as a Second Language learners

• International students

• Adult learners with full-time jobs and families

• And all others who have difficulty reading and writing

Installing Read&Write

Go to the Texthelp webpage.  (https://www.texthelp.com )

On the Texthelp homepage locate and select the  Products link in the main menu.Choose the Products drop-down menu from the banner and select Read&Write.

Click Select the link to "Try Read&WriteImage Removed."

Choose Google Chrome, Windows, Android, iPad, Windows, Mac OS, Chrome, or Edge.

The For desktop applications, the install package will be downloaded to your device where you can install as you would any other program. Browser extension links will bring you to the respective store page. 

Note: when When prompted to log in, please choose the 'Sign in with GoogleMicrosoft' option and use your netID@g.syr.edu email address. This will authenticate you as a Syracuse University user. 

Add the PDF Reader for Chrome

If you installed the Chrome extension, consider also downloading the PDF Reader Extension for Chrome which allows you to open and read PDF documents from Google Drive, from the web, or directly from your hard drive. As with the Read & Write Chrome extension, be sure you are logged in to your netID@g.syr.edu account in Chrome when downloading the extension. For instructions on using the PDF Reader with Google Drive please see Read&Write for Google Chrome: PDF Reader in G-Suite (YouTube).

Running Read & Write for the first time (Example from Windows)

1. Double click the Read & Write icon on your Desktop.

2. Click on the Read & Write tab at the top of your screen. Image Removed

3. Choose Sign in with Google and sign into Read & Write using your netID@g.syr.edu

Once installed, the Read & Write tab will expand to a toolbar when clicked.

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Adding Additional Voices

Additional voices can be added to your Windows or Mac installation of Read & Write. 

Windows Voices (Note: You must download the zipped file and extract the installer before attempting to run the executable file.)

• Australian Male Lee (.zip)
• Australian Female Karen (.zip)
• Chinese (Mandarin) Female Tian-tian (.zip)
• Dutch Female Claire (.zip)
• French Canadian Female Chantal (.zip)
• French Canadian Male Nicholas (.zip)
• German Female Anna (.zip)
• German Male Yannick (.zip)
• Indian English Female Veena (.zip)
• South African Female Tessa (.zip)
• Spanish Female Monica (.zip)
• UK Female Serena (.zip)
• US Female Allison (.zip)

Mac Voices (Note: All Mac voices are included in this download)

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follow the steps to login with your @syr.edu email. You will be prompted to authenticate. 

Tips for Launching the Read&Write Chrome Extension

• If upon installation and selecting the extension icon you are not prompted to login, you may need to clear your browser cache, restart your machine, or download the Read&Write desktop application for Windows or Mac OS. 

• For best results when signing into Read&Write with Microsoft, please go to office.com and sign in using your Syracuse University email. Open a blank online Word file and select the Read&Write extension icon while in that document. This will ensure that Read&Write detects the Microsoft account properly and is able to prompt its own login page. 

Add the OrbitNote Document Reader

OrbitNote from TextHelp is a web-based tool from TextHelp that lets you open, read, create, and interact with PDFs and other digital documents in an accessible, collaborative way. Users can access the reading, writing, studying, and research tools they need at school, home, or work. Having document text read aloud with dual color highlighting, along with additional support tools, helps every learner gain confidence and work independently at their own pace. Users can even upload static images with text to OrbitNote and turn them into accessible PDFs that can be read aloud with OrbitNote.

Key features:

• Makes images with text and image-only PDFs into accessible and interactable text that can be read aloud, highlighted, etc., via its OCR (“Scan Text”) feature.

• Enables text-to-speech so users can listen to the text in their document and follow along, as well as use foreign language translation, dictionaries, and other accessibility tools

• Highlight text, leave comments, produce and insert voice notes, and draw or type annotations

• Collaborate and share your documents in OrbitNote with others using Google Drive, OneDrive, Google Classroom, and more

• Learn about how to use all of OrbitNote’s features by viewing the instructional videos and text-based guide they have available in the OrbitNote dashboard

How to start:

1. Go to the OrbitNote website / dashboard
   Visit orbit.texthelp.com or the OrbitNote dashboard.

2. Sign in
   Sign in using a Google or Microsoft account. Granting OrbitNote certain permissions will be required (for access to Google Drive or OneDrive, etc.).

3. Open PDFs
   You can open PDFs from local files, from Google Drive, from OneDrive. You can drag & drop or select via file picker on the dashboard. If it’s a PDF in Google Drive, you can also use “Open with → OrbitNote.”

5. Use the tools
   Once the PDF is open, you’ll see the OrbitNote toolbar. From there, you can annotate (text, drawing, shapes), highlight, use text-to-speech, use vocabulary tools, leave comments or voice annotations, etc.

6. Sharing / feedback / collaboration
   You can share annotated PDFs via Drive, OneDrive, etc.

Additional Information and Training

 TextHelp has a number of free training resources including tutorials and videos in their Training & Resources Center including:

• Read&Write for Windows

  Training Guide (.pdf)Read&Write for Mac

  Training Guide

  (pdf)